Right. This hopefully is the start of the LGBTQI+ literature thread!! I tried to give y'all an extra day to prepare, but you voted.

Storytelling is a large part of what (in my opinion) makes human beings so human - we invent worlds, people, adventures to help us better understand ourselves, other people, and the world around us! Literature (and media in general) is fairly nebulous. Books, poetry, plays...

All important! And all revealing in different ways. You tell a different story in a book than in a poem. You have more control over the world the audience enters when you produce a play -- but when you write one, you leave it open to interpretation by directors. It's fascinating.

My dad majored in literature and my mom did accounting for a library growing up. So I spent a LOT of time around books. This taught me to listen to people when they come from a different place or mindset, but also to put my nose where it might not belong.

But it also gave me places I could turn to when things weren't going my way, when I felt misunderstood. I could find places where villains are vanquished or an ominous situation turns out to be for the best. I learned from people I had never met, who didn't (really) exist!

That's why literature, the arts in general, films, even television and podcasts must be protected. I don't trust people who can't name a favorite author/creator/work. Even if it's "just" a podcast! I mean, hello, where am I writing this right now?

But what happens when all you have access to is one sort of story?

If you see yourself in every winner with the happy ending... What happens when you meet someone, a real flesh-and-blood person, who's different?

What if they get... a promotion? That book deal? Win an election?

It's very easy to become resentful and feel like you were robbed. If you only see differences as flaws, it's easy to hate people. And... If you hate someone, it's easy to see them as something less than yourself, less than human.

Which is why broad horizons are so, so necessary!

The internet is freaking awesome, guys. We have the ability to reach out to people with experiences we've never even dreamed of! We can buy their stories and they just go zipzipzip like lighting to an app in our phone, which we can read without having to lug around heavy tomes.

I mean, this isn't a thread about the wonders of the internet Just wanted to say I wouldn't be able to talk to y'all without it. For example: A twitter friend (hi!) let me know she doesn't know non-binary folks IRL, and it was great to find that perspective online. So cool!

So... reading lets you "meet" people you may not get the chance to meet in real life. If that's the goal when you approach literature, that means diversity is important. POC characters, many gender identities and sexualities, hopefully written by someone responsible.

"Responsible" here means: informed by some aspect of the story in their real life (race, class, gender, sexuality) OR willing to find sensitivity readers AND LISTEN TO THEM. And pay them!!!! for their labor!!!!! People like to forget that part.

It is HARD for someone who isn't cisgender, heterosexual, and/or white to put content out there! It is hard for someone who doesn't live in a big city. Or in a country without freedom of expression. There are so many different odds stacked against so many of us (writers).

Publishing is really scary right now, but a lot of people are turning to digital meetings and people working remotely. Which means it hasn't ever needed to be as difficult as it is to get your foot in the door!

Not to go all conspiracy-theorist on you so early in the day/thread, but augmenting the media available to the masses is useful. When marginalized people feel alone, they tend to stay alone. So much LGBTQI+ lit features "found families" because many of us have to, to survive.

So, on the one hand, it's necessary to seek out informed media from people who live the experience. On the other hand, it's necessary for authors, who DO have certain privileges, to include minority or marginalized characters... but to do it in an informed way.

But that's a hard thing to do correctly. In fact, it's way too easy to insert one token queer, trans, or POC character, rely on stereotypes and end up doing far more harm than good.

In real life there are no token characters!!!

Radical, I know, but readers should be important! They trust you with their money, time, and the little memory chips in their heads. If you aren't going to be respectful and take care of a character that a reader might very well see themselves in..... you should not be writing.

So, that feels like a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" type of situation. If we SHOULD put a diverse cast of characters into our stories, how do we do it without being insulting? And what do we do if we mess up?

Well... Everything I've already mentioned is a good start. Read a lot, esp. contemporary material, find friends with different experiences, join that groupchat, and don't be afraid to reach out to people with certain experiences. Follow the author of that exciting new release!

Anything you write can be changed before publishing. To make sure you're writing from an informed place and won't accidentally hurt your readers, find a sensitivity reader for your draft. Not every POC or LGBTQI+ person is going to be willing to do that. Don't take it personally.

Critique of your work isn't a critique of your person.

Critique of your work isn't a critique of your person.
Critique of your work isn't a critique of your person.
Critique of your work isn't a critique of your person.
Critique of your work isn't a critique of your person.
Critique of your work isn't a critique of your person.

Okay. Phew. Had to get that off my chest. Because. It isn't. It really isn't.

Unless, of course, you did set out to be deliberately hateful.

Having a diverse, well-defined cast and avoiding negative stereotypes or tropes doesn’t mean there won’t be bad reviews!! I just mean that doing due diligence in the writing and editing process should make for an easier reception once you’re published.

Well, what if you are writing a gay, or trans, or Black character, you are none of those things, and no one will do a sensitivity read?

Keep the cast! Keep writing!!!! Play it safe! Hope like hell your editor knows someone who can help!

So much can be avoided by having an open-minded editor. Work hard on building that rapport!! If yours isn’t, or you don’t HAVE an editor, I have some... uh... unconventional advice.

REACH OUT TO FANFIC WRITERS.

When you query your book you’re going to want comparisons, so folks know what they’re getting into before they read your blurb, chapter, manuscript. Find fanfic for your comp that floats your creative boat, with queer or trans AUs. DM the author. Ask them to beta for you.

Loooots of LGBTQI+ folks write and read fanfic, because contemporary media usually can’t be arsed to tell things right. Sometimes it’s the only way to see ourselves in fiction.

If you’re really stuck, reach out to fanfic readers, too. They’re a picky bunch but awesome.

If that STILL isn’t working, there are ways to build representation in your story that won’t make it feel like you’re trespassing.

I said in my non-binary/gender-nonconforming thread that LGBTQI+ people tend to be loud online because happiness is loud. I neglected to mention that “online” is where we can be most ourselves.

That doesn’t mean LGBTQI+ folx are one-dimensional. Our identities inform everything we do and everything that’s done to us. So does trauma. But we are all fleshed-out people with quirks and interests besides that! That is what you focus on. Real life has no token characters!

The assumption that marginalized people's only personality trait is being marginalized is so so harmful. Best way to write a good story is to avoid that like (please pardon the expression) the freakin' PLAGUE.

The best thing to do is treat your characters like people. Get to know them. Don't necessarily do a John Green and put a bunch of quirks in a hat, draw five, and make them into a person. But know what they like! What they dislike! Give 'em a catchphrase (and use it sparingly)!

Recognize, before you even get started, that a white person with 2700 friends who're POC, cannot write from experience what it's like to live as a Black person. Ditto a cis/het person with 2700 LGBTQI+ friends.

If that's your plan of action: Let that idea go. Don't touch it. It'll be much easier. Sometimes it's enough to just say someone is gay, or black, or trans, without relying on a stereotype to somehow "prove" it.

(Necessary caveat: This all assumes people don't want to portray being a person of color or gay or bi or pan or trans or non-binary or gender-nonconforming in a negative way. Obviously. People who don't care about diversity make it obvious (side-eyes JKR's THE SILKWORM, et al).)

(ALSO THIS SHOULD BE OBVIOUS BUT DO NOT MAKE PRE-OP PRISON RAPE JOKES ABOUT TRANS PEOPLE. DO NOT MAKE RAPE JOKES. DO NOT ALLOW YOUR CHARACTERS TO DO THAT. FIND SOME OTHER WAY TO MAKE IT CLEAR THEY ARE AN ASSHAT.)

Ahem.

Basically. Readers are going to see characters as people, maybe even see themselves as people. If you treat those characters badly BECAUSE OF SOMETHING THEY CAN'T CHANGE, you're causing harm. If you're okay with harming your readers, you need to rethink things.

Which brings me to my next suggestion. It may be just a few degrees away from "give minority and marginalized characters dimension," but it is for some reason not as obvious.

Do not make your story or your character's arc hinge on what I call "the struggle bus."

Straight, cis, white people for some reason LOVE to read about how much it sucks to be queer, trans, or a person of color. Sometimes it feels like a minority character is only relevant (whatever that means) if they suffer for or agonize over their identity.

Even if it's pitched as being "about" the struggle, or coming out, or coming of age... Sometimes it feels like books shelved as LGBT stories won't be picked up if there isn't violence. And then, even within the works that are published, trans stories still get minimized or worse.

TW: murder, violence, transphobia.

DANTE AND ARISTOTLE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE caught me off-guard. The murder of trans prostitute is mentioned to little effect... In a book where gay Latino boys face violence. It was a very damaging choice in a not-that-bad book.

I find it daunting that books that address profiling and prejudice can still bring up and dismiss something so jarring in less than three sentences, even when the framework of the story should address it more. Same issue, different lens, still awful. I don't get it.

So it has to be said that literally anyone can have a bad take and do damage! Literally everyone has the same duty to be responsible with the content they create, especially if it's going to be consumed large-scale.

There is a shortage of happy endings and disproportionate suffering in LGBTQI+ stories, which is a shame.

Believe it or not..... marginalized people consume fiction as a form of escapism, just like everyone else!!

We see ourselves in your characters! And almost every character we meet who is even remotely like us must first traverse the wide gaping chasm of fear, judgement, abuse (or even violence), or abandonment all to make that tiny step forward of daring to live life.

It is so disheartening! Some of us face racism, trans- or homophobia, every day in our personal or professional lives. We decide a movie or a book looks good, AND WE STILL CAN'T TURN OFF THE HATE.

Can you see how harmful that is? News flash: a lot of us have already been there and done that. And some of us have to relive very personal trauma for every piece of media we consume... And we may not even get a happy ending for our trouble!

We have lives and happiness in the every day. We have friends and family (real or found) who love us for who we are! We get married, have kids, grow into ourselves. Our lives are worth more than being boiled down to the struggle. And fiction should reflect that!

I think this is a good place to change gears and make you all some recommendations, given how much I've harped on consuming well to write well.